Favorite Things: August 2017

Last year we launched this “Favorite Things” series as a way to highlight some of the fun things going on behind the scenes here at The Touring Camper. We try to post daily over on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, but a lot of what we post on social media we never get a chance to share on the blog. So here are some of our favorite moments from August:

The Total solar Eclipse!

Our trip to Nashville to witness the total solar eclipse was definitely THE highlight of the month, if not the year! This is something Jarrett has been looking forward to for YEARS (he’s a former junior high and high school science teacher, what can I say 🙂 ), and something he began planning for over a year ago. (He even ordered the eclipse glasses right after making campground reservations 12 months ago, and they were safely tucked in our camper ever since.) All of that planning paid off, though, because we had the PERFECT spot to watch totality, without even leaving our epic campsite (more on that below).

We had a lot more coverage of the eclipse over on our Facebook and Instagram pages, but here’s a sampling of the pictures and video:

ADD TIMELAPSE HERE

Our campsite at Cedar Creek

Site 50 at Cedar Creek Army Corp of Engineers Campground may go down in history as our most epic campsite E.V.E.R. Throughout our 13 years of camping and touring together, we’ve stayed in many really nice campsites, but nothing that came close to the spacious, shaded, and waterfront experience we had at Cedar Creek. With a campsite yard area that rivals the one at our sticks & bricks home, our kids declared it to be their favorite place ever to camp. (How many times can I use “ever” in a post? 😉 ) And perhaps the best part of this little piece of campground heaven: a front-row seat to spectacular sunsets.

Touring Nashville

While we were in town for the eclipse we wanted to take advantage of our close proximity to Nashville to do a bit of touring. We’ve already decided we WILL be coming back to the area since there’s so much more to explore.

For this visit we were thrilled to stop by the Anderson Design Group and meet designer Joel Anderson and his wife Patty. They were kind enough to give us a behind the scenes tour of the place and a sneak peak at the upcoming Illustrated Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Stay tuned for more details about a related giveaway coming later this fall!)

From there we headed over to Antique Archaeology, and scoped out some of the cool finds featured on the hit show American Pickers. The place was packed but it was neat seeing some of Mike Wolfe’s personal collection that he has “picked” on the show.

The next day we headed to Andrew Jackson’s historic home, the Hermitage. We never know how interested the kids are going to be on home tours, but this visit exceeded our expectations thanks to the awesome audio tour that includes an adult and kids version. We also got to sit in on a special duel reenactment, which was pretty cool.

Inaugural S’more night

We had so much fun kicking off our first-ever “Free S’more Night” while staying at Cedar Creek. This is an idea we’ve had percolating for several months now, and it was great to finally get it off the ground. We met a couple awesome families and loved hearing a little bit of their personal stories. This is something we plan to continue on future campouts, so if our paths cross, look for the sign and come on by!

Kentucky Horse Park

En route to Nashville we made a two-night stop in Lexington so we could take our horse-crazy daughter to Kentucky Horse Park. The kids loved the campground, where our campsite backed up to the playground and a big pool was just across the street. Admission into the park grants you access for two consecutive days, which was awesome so we could pace ourselves rather than racing around trying to squeeze everything in. Although I personally am not that interested in horse history and culture, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed our visit—and I will have more details about why in an upcoming feature post. 🙂

How about you: What were your favorite things of August? You can share in the comment section below.

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